Las Vegas Sands still can’t be bothered to finish its St. Regis stump on the Strip, but it’s spending capex dollars like there’s no tomorrow in Macao. Sands will throw $700 million into redoing 
Sands Cotai Central as The Londoner, spend $275 million on St. Regis Tower Suites and another $250 million to convert Four Seasons apartments into hotel suites (I guess the condo market wasn’t so hot over there either). Mass-market play, a Sands staple, was up 12.5% last quarter. On the Las Vegas front, management said it was “recovering well” from the Oct. 1 shootings. Despite higher occupancy, room revenues were down 3%, a phenomenon that Deutsche Bank analyst Carlo Santarelli found “a tad confusing.” Thanks to the Mayweather/McGregor fight and convention business, MGM Resorts International is thought to have eaten some of Sheldon Adelson‘s 3Q17 lunch.
JP Morgan analyst Joseph Greff dismissed the report as “Basically a repeat of the 2Q17,” although he noted that stronger business at Parisian ($418 million last quarter) helped Sands beat Wall Street estimates. Greff speculated that Adelson’s big Macao 
renovation would ultimately improve cash flow “and position SCC much more solidly in the premium mass segment.” He noted that Sands is operating in a more-competitive mass market and the cost of doing that business has risen, but that the reinvestment in Sands Cotai would be smiled upon by City Hall. Marina Bay Sands in Singapore grossed $793 million for the quarter, well ahead of expectations, with VIP play credited for the outcome.
* The Culinary Union will be descending upon the offices of Sens. Dean Heller (R) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D) today to press them on the issue of Temporary Protected Status and 
keeping it in place. “Approximately 5,700 immigrants with TPS designations call Nevada home and have lived in the United States for nearly 10 years. They pay taxes, raise their children who are U.S. citizens, and contribute to our economy,” said Culinary Secretary-Treasurer Geoconda Argüello-Kline. It’s not clear how badly a revocation of TPS would hit the casinos or the Culinary, but the union has made its preservation a high and continuing priority.
* Like Topsy, Resorts World Casino New York City just keeps growing and growing. It’s expanded to a third floor, where gamblers 336 new lottery terminals and electronic table games. This “Central Park floor” will also continue to host meetings and musical performances. Resorts World NYC’s total machine inventory is now a staggering 6,050 devices. The new gaming product is described as “cutting-edge, first to market products designed to appeal to millennial customers.” Genting also broke ground on an accompanying, 400-room hotel “that will rival Manhattan‘s finest accommodations,” and is adding four new restaurants. Genting is giving New York gamblers a compelling reason to keep their play close to home.
* The Paddock family is back in the news and not in a good way. Gunman Stephen Paddock‘s brother Bruce has been arrested on child-porn charges, pursuant to a “19 counts of sexual exploitation of a child and one count of possession of child pornography.” (Shudder!) The Paddock brothers are the offspring of Benjamin Paddock, bank robber and prison escapee. There are some severely twisted strands of DNA in that family.
